WASHINGTON — British Prime Minister Liz Truss will meet U.S. President Joe Biden in New York next week for the first time since taking office, shifting plans for a brief session in London during commemorations for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The leaders will hold a bilateral meeting on Wednesday while both are attending the United Nations General Assembly, according to separate statements from the White House and Downing Street. Truss’ office previously listed Biden among foreign leaders she planned to meet over the weekend, though these were described as short of full bilateral meetings in deference to the U.K.’s period of national mourning.
While Truss, who took office last week, has sought a meeting with Biden, the White House had been noncommittal on when it would take place.
The U.S. and the U.K. maintain the so-called Special Relationship that has endured through a range of leaders and their personalities. Yet Truss’ circle was irked by Biden’s public insistence that Brexit proceedings avoid enacting new barriers at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Truss is admired by American conservatives and has positioned herself in the mold of Margaret Thatcher, whereas Biden regularly derides the trickle-down economic philosophies of the era of Thatcher and her American counterpart, Ronald Reagan.
